With the credibility and ultimate value of IT under a microscope these days, CIOs must demonstrate solid leadership skills, both within their IT departments and among other, non-IT executives. To meet the specific training needs of CIOs, a few programs that focus exclusively on IT leadership have cropped up. They offer differing perspectives and content, but each is aimed at making CIOs better, more credible corporate leaders.

CIOs have had training options for as long as executive education has been around. Yet leadership guru Barry Posner, who conducts training programs for both IT and general business executives, makes a case for CIOs to attend IT-specific events. "For IT folks, it’s helpful to get together with other IT folks. IT participants get left behind in programs that I teach with people from other disciplines," says Posner, who is dean and professor of leadership at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business and coauthor of a best-selling book on leadership. He points to the newness of the CIO position among executive ranks. By the time people reach senior leadership levels in IT, Posner says, they usually haven’t had comparable experiences in sales, manufacturing or finance?unlike CEOs, CFOs and COOs, who traditionally rotate through different high-level jobs. "A lot of people who have come up fairly quickly in the IT function have done so largely by putting out fires in technology," Posner says.

Being reactive is not the kind of leadership skill that CIOs need for success right now. Posner, along with Pete DeLisi and Ron Danielson, launched the Information Technology Leadership Program (ITLP) at Santa Clara based on research they had conducted on the CIO role. The trio asked CEOs what skills CIOs needed to be successful. They found that CIOs typically lacked the leadership traits needed to become a major player on the executive team.

The IT Leadership Program emphasizes skills-based training centered around strategic thinking, consulting, and effective management and leadership. Now in its eighth year, the program is offered twice annually as a three-day gathering. In case studies and role-playing exercises, participants are not simply taught about skills such as influence and relationship-building; they have to practice them. Small teams of attendees get a business problem to solve?for example, a vice president of marketing asks for IT’s help to boost business. Team members have to use questioning skills to gather information, negotiation and influencing skills to make decisions, and communication skills to present a final proposal. Throughout, participants are coached on their performances.